Chapter 25
[Title: Wow, but the cast lineup is insanely stacked]
[Author:ㅇㅇ]
S-rank #4 Alice
A-rank #6 Sapphire
B-rank #3 Mia (support type)
And with Black Rose and Berta, the previous tournament's winner and runner-up, among them, there are also 20 fairly famous rookies appearing. Isn't this cast lineup seriously unprecedented? Even the head producer is a magical girl who used to be pretty famous in this industry.
ㅇㅇ: Seeing it like this, the lineup really is insanely stacked. But who is Mia? I follow and subscribe to hundreds of magical-girl accounts, yet I've never heard of her.
ㄴㅇㅇ: That's because she doesn't use XTube or Xsta.
[Title: What was that thing where Alice snapped her fingers and everyone went quiet?]
[Author:ㅇㅇ]
Something went bang and everyone shut up. What exactly did she do? Did they just go quiet because they were paying attention when she snapped her fingers?
ㅇㅇ: Didn't she cancel out the sound waves with magic power?
ㄴㅇㅇ: Can you do that?
ㄴㄴㅇㅇ: Why couldn't you?
ㅇㅇ: She really did cancel out the sound waves with magic power. Sound is ultimately transmitted through air as a medium, so if you create waves with magic power and interfere with their transmission, you can erase all sound for a moment. I saw it in a video explaining magical-girl magic before.
ㄴㅇㅇ: Isn't that a video only released to magical girls?
ㄴㄴㅇㅇ: Ah (30-day ban)
[Title: Beginner magical girls, you have to watch Rookie Magical Class. Seriously, no regrets.]
[Author:ㅇㅇ]
Since it was only the first episode, they didn't even get properly into the lesson, but the answers she gave to questions here and there were nothing but the good stuff. It honestly seemed more substantial and better explained than magic lectures sold for money. And its reliability is high, too. The source is Alice, so what is there to doubt? It must be right.
If you're a beginner magical girl who wants to improve your magic, seriously watch the live broadcast and catch the reruns, too. It's even free.
ㅇㅇ: Isn't the magical-girl gallery a fan gallery...? Why are there beginner magical girls here?
ㄴㅇㅇ: You've realized it, huh.
ㄴㅇㅇ: You didn't know?
ㄴㅇㅇ: You've realized it, huh.
ㅇㅇ:(I wasn't the only magical girl! meme)
[Title: What the hell do you see in a flat-chested chick like Alice?]
[Author:레도시]
You loli-cult bastards, as usual.
ㅇㅇ: Why the fuck are you calling Alice a loli, you asshole?
ㄴ레도시: If her breasts are small, isn't she a loli?
ㄴㄴㅇㅇ: No!!!!!!!!!!!
ㅇㅇ: Say it with me: s l e n d e r.
ㄴ레도시: S m a l l b o o b s l o l i.
ㅇㅇ: Name your favorite magical girl, quick.
ㄴ레도시:Ako
ㄴㄴㅇㅇ: Fuck, flat as a board lol
ㄴㄴㅇㅇ: Get wrecked, fuck lol
토끼사랑해: That's what makes her good, though?
ㄴㅇㅇ: Looking at this guy's gallery log, he's the real deal...
ㄴㅇㅇ: His post-to-comment ratio is fucking wild.
* * *
"Ah, fuck, life is fucking awful."
After finally finishing filming and coming home, I got a little rest, and then the next filming date was already approaching.
The schedule called for two filming sessions a week, so the next filming day came after only two or three days of rest.
"Bunny. The calendar's bugged. Fix it quick. There's no way tomorrow's a filming day."
[How can a paper calendar bug?!]
"I don't know. Anyway, it's definitely a bug. Hurry up and tell me it's a bug. You can read clocks well, right?"
[I'm telling you, I didn't choose to be attached to you, either!]
The broadcast for episode one had already aired.
I don't make a point of watching broadcasts I'm in, so I hadn't watched it myself, but according to Sapphire, the ratings had turned out pretty well.
They were about 20% higher than those of the already hugely popular previous show, Rookie Magical Match...
...You're saying it was a massive smash hit?!
Why?!
No, seriously, why?!
If it had at least involved actually teaching a proper class, or if flashy magic had gone swoosh-swoosh across the screen, I could understand it. But the first episode had truly been nothing but playing around. Aside from the games, all we'd done was answer the students' questions, so what was there to watch that so many people had tuned in?
Was there, perhaps, a popular magical girl among the participants?
If so, it wasn't impossible to understand.
Although most of them were rookies, there were 23 magical girls participating, so all their fans...
'...Ah!'
The program right before this one had happened to be a tournament called Rookie Magical Match...? Something like that.
The fans of the beginner magical girls who had raised their profiles through that tournament carried over, and many magical girls who hadn't participated in it had joined this program as well, so the overall fanbase could only have grown.
'...But they said a new drama was airing. What happened with that?'
I had thought the ratings would fall because this program was competing with a new production by a fairly popular director, but if this one had done so well, what sort of situation was the other show in?
I hadn't watched it myself, but I knew the director's previous work had wrapped up successfully and that the director was fairly popular, so how had it flopped...
["The Day It Became Rain," The Sentiment and Story Have Both Faded... A Shockingly Low Rating in the 0% Range]
[They Promised a Well-Made Emotional Drama, but the Results Are Abysmal... Viewers React 'Coldly']
"...Ha, seriously."
-Throb-throb
A headache that had seemed subdued for a while began throbbing again.
I didn't know why so many headache-inducing problems had been coming at me nonstop lately.
They say misfortune comes in succession, but wasn't this a little too sudden? They should at least give a person some time to prepare.
'...Am I being punished now?'
If this was punishment for spending the past eight years deceiving people so thoroughly, I had nothing to say.
To everyone else, Alice was a star that always shone brightly—the light that protected the world.
If they were going to punish me now for pretending to be real and deceiving people despite being a fake, I had little to say about that, either.
I had never thought I could keep this ridiculous farce going forever.
"Damn it."
As my mood rapidly worsened, I took out a cigarette and held it between my fingers to clear my head, then pulled out a lighter.
One of the few advantages of being a magical girl was that even an untransformed body was immune to most ordinary illnesses.
Otherwise, I probably would have developed a hole in my lung by now.
-Sizzle...
Just as I was about to flick on the lighter and set the cigarette alight, I happened to notice the one-person tent set up where my bed had been, with a sleeping bag inside it.
"...Ha."
-Tap
The terrace was broken and unusable, and smoking in the room was out of the question. If everything in here had been mine, perhaps, but borrowed belongings were sitting right there in the room.
If I wanted to smoke, that meant going outside and smoking, but I didn't want to do that, either.
I'm the sort of person who doesn't even like the feeling of outdoor air touching my skin. Rather than endure that and go all the way outside for a cigarette, I'd rather just put up with it.
I was going to wash and return everything anyway, but making things I'd borrowed from a nonsmoker smell like cigarettes would be seriously wrong.
I'm not quitting. If I have a reason to go outside, I'll smoke then.
-Ding
[Ms. Alice. This is Sapphire. I've sent you an email with the points Producer asked you to review before the next shoot.]
[Thank you, Miss Sapphire.]
[Yes, see you tomorrow.]
-Click
There was a computer right in front of me, so I decided to check the email Sapphire had sent...
"...The next episode will really be boring, won't it."
The last episode had mostly consisted of games and chatting, so that one was understandable, but I could confidently say that this episode would be truly boring.
* * *
"All right, everyone. I've checked the questions you left last time. It's wonderful to see you all participating so enthusiastically. Alice will work hard to guide you, too, so by the time our time together is over, let's promise that you'll all be even more wonderful magical girls."
"""Yes!!!!!!"""
"Now then... I'll explain the topic most of you asked about. It seems the weapon you've acquired doesn't suit your fighting style. Is there any way to change weapons? This is certainly something many of you would worry about."
Today, Senior Alice's class began as well.
Despite her reputation, Senior Alice had a strangely low profile among ordinary people, but many magical girls deeply respected her.
There were all sorts of reasons. A senior who had been active for so long and was writing living history had countless admirable qualities.
Her fantastic skill during the Leviathan incident was one. So was the way she swiftly handled the Abyssals and disappeared without seeking wealth or fame, despite having been active for ten years. And she had maintained Alice's unique way of speaking and personality without breaking character throughout all that time.
Everything about her was an example for magical girls to follow.
Ah, actually, I have seen Senior's unique persona crack before.
It was during the Leviathan incident, when Senior gave her junior magical girls a sharp talking-to. I was there, too.
Magical girls were bound by a restriction that prevented them from carelessly revealing another magical girl's secrets, but among the magical girls who had been there that day, not one spread Senior's mistake-that-wasn't-a-mistake anywhere else.
They simply carried Senior's words in their hearts.
[Are you insane?! If you stand there and block that attack, you and the civilians will die, got it?! Did you become magical girls so you could die?!]
[Live. No matter how strong an Abyssal is, live. If you don't think you can fight, run. There is nothing in your contract with your mascot that says you have to enter a fight you're certain to lose, fight, and die. You aren't magical girls to die. Don't die trying to save civilians, and don't try to take an Abyssal down with you, either. Use those damn lives for something more worthwhile. A life is disposable, but it doesn't exist to be used and thrown away.]
[I don't know or care why you became magical girls. But at least you didn't start because you wanted to die. You can't save civilians because your ability isn't good enough? You can't stand the thought of abandoning civilians and running away? Don't think that way. Listen carefully. A magical girl is someone who reduces the damage caused by an Abyssal, not someone who eliminates that damage entirely. You changed a hundred deaths into five. Do you think those five died because of you? If you have time to think that, spend it training more and save a hundred people next time. If you get hung up on those five and regret it, next time those five will become ten, twenty, thirty.]
[Remember. Don't mistake gaining some strong power after contracting to become a magical girl for becoming something extraordinary. You're human. Humans who feel pain when hurt, sadness when insulted, and agony that tears their hearts apart when they regret something.]
[Don't throw yourselves away to save others, you idiots.]
It was a speech far removed from the ideal magical girl, and from Senior Alice's usual image as well, but...
Because we knew what intent and reason had driven Senior to say those words, even abandoning her persona to do so,
no magical girl brought that incident to light.